Electrodes having nanostructure and/or utilizing nanoparticles of active materials can exhibit improved performance in energy storage devices compared to traditional electrodes that do not take advantage of nanomaterials. However, one of the challenges is forming a sufficiently large area of uniform active-material nanoparticles with desirable thickness or active mass loading. Only thin electrodes and low active mass loadings have been demonstrated in electrodes having nanoparticles due to the development of cracks and pinholes in electrodes having commercially relevant thicknesses or active mass loadings. For example, in lithium sulfur batteries, the active cathode material, sulfur, is usually loaded in nanosized pores of carbon hosts. This can make improvement of sulfur loading on the electrode difficult while still keeping a large area of uniform coating. Accordingly, a need exists for thick electrodes having nanoparticles of active materials and methods for making the same.